This Tiny AI Stock Produces a 600% Return on Marketing Spend for Customers

It's not every day that a business can invest $1 into a marketing campaign and turn it into $7. However, it's actually quite common for Zeta Global's (NYSE: ZETA) customers.

Zeta CEO David A. Sternberg touted "an average 600% return on marketing spend for our customers," but the company's stock is only up by 8% this year. While investors shouldn't expect the stock to rise by 600% in a single year, it's hard to imagine that its shareholder returns will stay modest for long if the company continues to execute.

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Zeta is capitalizing on agentic AI

Zeta touts itself as an AI marketing cloud platform that helps businesses run data-driven marketing campaigns. Its AI agents make it easier for marketers to analyze consumer behavior, and more than half of Fortune 500 companies use its platform.

Athena by Zeta acts as the brains behind the operation. It can analyze results from a company's past marketing campaigns and determine which actions can yield the highest ROI. The Zeta Marketing Platform lets enterprises gather all of their marketing campaign data in the same place, which lets Athena provide more accurate recommendations.

Zeta's progress with agentic AI has attracted Palantir's attention. The two companies announced a strategic partnership that Sternberg anticipates can generate more than $100 million in annual recurring revenue for his company in the future.

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing many industries, including marketing. According to a forecast by Grand View Research, the marketing technology industry will grow at a compound annual rate of 20.1% through 2033 to a value of $2.38 trillion. If Zeta can get a larger slice of that pie through its AI-powered marketing platform, it could outperform the S&P 500 over an extended period of time.

Growth in super-scaled customers lifts the entire business

Although Zeta's stock has posted moderate gains so far this year, its fundamentals continue to grow significantly. In Q1, the company delivered its 19th consecutive "beat and raise" quarter as overall revenue surged by 50% year over year.

Super-scaled customers were a big part of that successful quarter. Zeta defines this group of customers as enterprises that generate more than $1 million in annual recurring revenue for the company. Zeta now has 189 super-scaled customers, up by 19% year over year, with an average revenue per user of $1.7 million. That means the company is bringing in approximately $321.3 million per year from those 189 customers.

Zeta currently anticipates 37% year-over-year revenue growth in 2026, but it's possible that its growth rate will outpace that. After all, the company has beaten estimates and raised guidance every quarter for almost five years.

Many of its super-scaled customers upgrade their plans as their needs evolve. It's also easier for these enterprises to pay for more expensive plans once they see high ROIs from Zeta's platform.

If the company can finally report consistent profits, that could be a major catalyst for the stock. Right now, its net profit margins are in the negative, but not by much. Zeta still has good top-line scaling, and once it becomes profitable, net income could scale up quickly as well. Zeta has already guided for positive GAAP net income for 2026, implying that this will happen sooner rather than later.

Marc Guberti has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Palantir Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.